2010 FOLLOW LIST

COMPILED by ANDY SEILER

STATE OVERVIEW

The 2009 Georgia draft class benefited greatly from a few elite players, most notably Cartersville High outfielder Donavan Tate and East Paulding High righthander Zack Wheeler. Tate was taken third overall by the San Diego Padres, while Wheeler went three picks later to the San Francisco Giants.

Two Kennesaw State righthanders, Chad Jenkins (20^th overall to the Toronto Blue Jays) and Kyle Heckathorn (47^th overall to the Milwaukee Brewers) gave Georgia a third and fourth player before the start of the second round. That quartet represented the elite of the 2009 class, which was top-heavy in talent, but lacked depth, especially in the high-school ranks.

This year’s class has the potential to be better in a number of regards. According to the attached state follow list, no fewer than 11 prospects are projected to be picked in the top three rounds; another 21 have the potential to be taken in the top 10 rounds, which would be an immense improvement over the 14 taken in the top 10 rounds a year ago.

This class is also not lacking in elite talent. Georgia Tech righthander Deck McGuire has a solid shot at going in the top 10 picks, and 3-4 more could go off the board before the second round starts.

The volume of talent in this year’s Georgia draft class could be the greatest the state has produced in some time, perhaps ever. It won’t change where Georgia stands in the pecking order among the nation’s best talent-producing states as it remains a distant fourth behind the Big Three of California, Florida and Texas. In the six-year period from 2004-09, a total of 380 players were drafted who attended Georgia high schools. Texas (889) is third on that list, Arizona (297) fifth.

To put it into perspective, though, how the yield of baseball talent coming from Georgia has grown through the years, just 32 players were drafted in 1969 who attended state high schools; 20 years later, that number was just 34. But last year, 79 players were drafted who had attended high school in Georgia. That represents a 232 percent increase from just 20 years ago.

No two factors have contributed more to the increase than the success over the last two decades of the major league Atlanta Braves and the elite East Cobb travel program in suburban Atlanta. The Braves get credit for spurring on a lot more Georgia high-school athletes top pursue baseball, and many of the elite players developed their craft in the East Cobb program, including the top-two ranked players this year, righthander/third baseman Kaleb Cowart and outfielder Chevez Clarke.

The 6-foot-7 McGuire, though, stands head and shoulders above the rest of the 2010 Georgia draft class. A tall, lithe righthander, McGuire isn’t a Georgia high-school product. In fact, both McGuire and Georgia righthander Justin Grimm are Virginia high-school imports. McGuire has a low-90s fastball with three potentially-above-average off-speed pitches, while Grimm offers some of the best raw arm strength in the entire 2010 draft class.

As talented as those two arms are, the story of the 2010 Georgia class is the depth in the high-school ranks, with Cowart and Clarke both given an excellent shot of being selected in the top 50 picks. Cowart is an intriguing two-way player who has potential as both a righthanded starter and third baseman, though he’s made it clear that he wants to be a hitter as a pro player. Clarke is more of a raw athlete with a promising bat and plus defensive skills in center field. Both players are not slam dunks to sign, however, as they have solid college commitments, Cowart at Florida State, Clarke at Georgia Tech.

The rest of the high-school class has a number of elite athletes, and there are a number of promising arms, as well. The emergence of several outfielders late in the spring has made this class look even more inviting to the scouting community. The group behind Clarke includes the son of former major-league second baseman Delino DeShields, also named Delino, and as many as nine or 10 Georgia high-school players that project as future outfielders could be taken by the 10^th round.

Two of the hot new names this spring have been Aaron Shipman of Brooks County High, and Jordan Akins of Union Grove High. Both have come so far so fast that they could conceivably be picked as high as the second round, though that’s more realistic for Shipman than Akins.

Shipman is an excellent athlete with impressive bloodlines. His father played minor-league baseball and is his coach, and his brother Robert is a first baseman at Georgia. Though his father and brother are built for power, Aaron is a superior runner and has been clocked as high as 6.3 seconds in the 60-yard dash. Shipman’s hitting has also come along well this spring, and he has a plus arm and good range. His only below-average tool is power.

Akins is an excellent athlete himself, and may even be more tools-oriented than Shipman, though it comes with the price of rawness. A two-sport athlete with a scholarship to play wide receiver at Central Florida, Akins has the physical projection to hit for power, and he’s an easy plus runner. Appropriately, he was recruited to UCF in the football classification of “athlete.” Though more raw at the plate than Shipman, Akins has been on a late-season tear that has helped to better showcase his natural abilities. He looks to be a solid defender in center field, too.

On the pitching side of the equation, Georgia’s class contains a number of promising arms, including righthanders DeAndre Smelter and Cameron Bedrosian, a pair of potential top-3 round arms.

Smelter is extremely athletic for a pitcher, and yet while he has an above-average fastball, he has been advised against using his slider and split-finger fastball too much this spring by his pitching coach, former major leaguer Kevin Brown, so to not put overdue strain on his arm. As a consequence, scouts have had a hard time figuring out whether he can actually spin a breaking ball.

Bedrosian is the latest example of a Georgia player with strong bloodlines. He is the son of former Braves Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Steve Bedrosian. Cameron has excellent pure arm strength, but lacks the physical size of a typical high-school early-round pick. Some scouts see Bedrosian as a future reliever, like his dad, due to his arm strength and size, but he probably will get a chance to start at LSU, should be end up in college.

IN A NUTSHELL

STRENGTH: High-ceiling prep talent, college pitching.

WEAKNESS: Junior-college prospects, college hitting.

OVERALL RATING (1-to-5 scale): 5.

BEST COLLEGE TEAM: Georgia Tech.

BEST JUNIOR COLLEGE TEAM: Gordon.

BEST HIGH SCHOOL TEAM: Mill Creek, Hoschton.

PROSPECT ON THE RISE: Aaron Shipman, of/lhp, Brooks County HS. Excellent bloodlines and athleticism, all tools rate as above-average except for power; has run the 60 in 6.3 seconds.

PROSPECT ON THE DECLINE: Kevin Jacob, rhp, Georgia Tech: Was a potential first-round pick entering 2010 on the strength of a 99-mph fastball, power curve; was down to 92-94 early in spring, missed significant time with shoulder injury.

WILD CARD: DeAndre Smelter, rhp/ss, Tattnall Square Academy. Unquestionable arm strength, but has resisted throwing breaking balls on advice of pitching coach Kevin Brown; has also become a late-season signee of Scott Boras Corporation.

BEST OUT-OF-STATE PROSPECT, Georgia Connection: Tyler Thornburg, rhp, Charleston Southern (Attended high school in Atlanta).

TOP 2011 PROSPECT: Zach Cone, of, Georgia.

TOP 2012 PROSPECT: Matthew Crownover, lhp, Ringgold HS.

HIGHEST DRAFT PICKS

Draft History: Ron Blomberg, 1b, Druid Hills HS, Atlanta (1967, Yankees/1^st round, 1^st pick); Mike Ivie, c, Walker HS, Decatur (1970, Padres/1^st round, 1^st pick); Tim Beckham, ss, Griffin HS (2008, Rays/1^st round, 1^st pick).

2006 Draft: Brooks Brown, rhp, U. of Georgia (Diamondbacks/1^st round; 34^th pick).

2007 Draft: Matt Wieters, c, Georgia Tech (Orioles/1^st round, 5^th pick).

2008 Draft: Tim Beckham, ss, Griffin HS (Rays/1^st round, 1^st pick).

2009 Draft: Donavan Tate, of, Cartersville HS (Padres/1^st round, 3^rd pick).

BEST TOOLS

Best Hitter: Delino DeShields, of, Woodward Academy.

Best Power: Kaleb Cowart, 3b-rhp, Cook County HS.

Best Speed: Aaron Shipman, of-lhp, Brooks County HS.

Best Defender: Chevez Clarke, of, Marietta HS.

Best Velocity: Justin Grimm, rhp, Georgia.

Best Breaking Stuff: Deck McGuire, rhp, Georgia Tech.

TOP PROSPECTS

Full scouting reports available on players ranked on national Top 250 list (click on National Top 300)

GROUP ONE(Projected ELITE-Round Draft / Rounds 1-3)

1. DECK McGUIRE, rhp, Georgia Tech (Jr.)                                                           National Top 250 (Rank 9)

Decorated college pitcher (7-3, 2.83) was ACC top pitcher as sophomore; has four above-average pitches